The Wisdom of the Enneagram

by Don Richard Riso

Liberated Fives remember the spaciousness and clarity of the Divine Mind, what the Buddhists call “the shining Void,” or Sunyata, the quiet, undisturbed vastness from which everything arises, including all knowledge and creativity. They long to return to an experience of the Void because it was once their home, as it was (from the Buddhist perspective) the origin of everyone and everything in the world. This longing to return to the Void must be understood properly, however, since it is not the emptiness of oblivion, but the “emptiness” of a glass of pure water or of a perfect blue sky: everything else is possible because of their emptiness. In this state, they are liberated from the belief that they are cut off from everyone and everything, and instead, they directly experience their underlying connection